[ Editor’s
Note: Viktor gives us a detailed review of the Arab
Spring destabilization program which is now threatening Saudi Arabia, by its
own hand… the old “be careful what you wish for because you just might get it”
adage.

How much the US is
pulling strings here — or thinking it is — remains to be seen. Some are
claiming it wants the Royal family to fall, but that seems way out there, as
the US would not want the huge remaining Saudi fortune tossed up into the air,
along with its large military stockpiles to be placed under unknown control.

The old term, “The
witch you know is better than the one you don’t”, comes to mind here. The US
has historically had no problem dealing with flawed regimes if they could be
looted via the assistance of corrupt local leaders, or militarily subverted via
coups of the bloodfest type, like the long Iran-Iraq war which was a “two-fer”.

On the bright
side, we have major progress on the Syrian front, thanks to the Russians and
the steadfastness of the Syrian Army and its allies. But we are still waiting
to see victory, which is a peace with Syrians really in control of their own
country. Will they get negotiated or muscled out of victory and peace?

I don’t think the
Russians and Iran have hung in there this long just to surrender to the US,
Saudis or Erdogan at this point. I am seeing that, as the refugees come back to
their homes and begin to rebuild, they will fight like banshees to defend them.
Self-defense forces will cover the entire country like a rug.

BTW, Ralph Peters
who is sourced below, is a long time NeoCon policy source which is the mark of
Cain here at VT, as are all Fox News pundits. That stain never washes off, so
readers beware.

The Syrian-Russian
coalition will continue to be a demonstration of the close integration
that is needed to defeat the Western terror tool, a template that those
targeted will be paying close attention to. Although Russia has
stated it will remain in Syria at the behest of the government as long as the
terrorism fight lasts, for those in the West planning to continue a terror
bombing war after a successful piece, that will just hand Moscow a permanent
and active counter terrorism base there... Jim W. Dean ]

The chaos, which
its diabolical authors have brought to a number of Arab countries cynically
calling it “the Arab Spring”, demonstrates that the process has not been
completed and yet some other Middle East countries will fall under its bloody
millstone.

A lot of these guys are dead now. As Putin said, “Better to kill them
there”

Arising quite
suddenly in Tunisia (that more or less successfully escaped the spring winds),
the chaos, backed up by the Western armed forces, moved to the formerly
prospering Libya, which, currently, has ceased to exist as a whole state having
fallen apart into three separate regions – Tripoli, Cyrenaica and Fezzan.

The latest news
reported by the global media evidence that the terrorist organisation, the
Islamic State (IS), is planning to turn the Libyan territory in its own
“jumping board” for penetrating and attacking European countries. In the north
of Africa, only Egypt has held its ground; due to the enormous political
experience of the Egyptian people and the determination of its army, it managed
to remedy the situation in the very heart of the Arab world.

The situation is
even worse in the Persian Gulf region where Bahrain at some point was occupied
by Saudi troops, and that alone helped to suppress the violent riots of the
Shiah who, according to different estimates, comprise over 70 to 80% of the
population. But the fire of the riots is not extinct and from time to time its
sparks serve as a reminder by burning Manama suburbs.

The situation is
awful in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The first two states fell victim to
unprovoked aggression on the part of the USA, resulting in the loss of national
identity and destruction of infrastructure. As the proverb goes, one fool makes
many, and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, blinded by their incredible wealth and
incorrect analysis of the situation in the region, wished to establish a regime
in Damascus, which would be obedient to them.

Until now, the
Syrian people have been in hell fighting with countless mercenaries and
defending their right to live and solve their own problems on their own, Syrian
soil. The country is divided into parts, many cities and settlements have been
demolished, several million Syrian nationals have left their homeland and are
seeking asylum in other countries.

But the Riyadh
Wahhabi leaders are still not satisfied with that, and their task is to
establish their own regime in Damascus, which would be obedient only to them,
no matter if Syria continues to exist as a single state or is divided into
several “subcomponents”.

However the logic
of the history of the so-called “Arab Spring” is as follows: the point
currently at issue is whether Saudi Arabia itself will exist within its
previous borders or there will be several states in the Saudi territory, in
compliance with the map of former lieutenant-colonel Ralf Peters.

Fox News’ Ret.
Colonel Ralph Peters

In this regard, it
should be recalledthat in June 2006 Ralf Peters, retired
lieutenant-colonel working in the US National Military Academy, published
prospective borders of the national states of the Greater Middle East in his
article “Blood Borders” in the Armed Forces Journal. R.Peters’ last assignment
was to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence in the US
Department of Defense.

He is one of the
most well-known Pentagon authors and has published numerous works on strategy
in US military and foreign policy editions. Though the aforementioned map does
not reflect the Pentagon’s official point of view, it was used in educational
programs for senior military officers of the NATO Defense College and could be
quite easily used, alongside other maps, by the National Military Academy and
military specialists in the sphere of planning.

At this very
complicated period of its existence, possibly the most dangerous one since the
moment when Saudi Arabia was created by Abdulaziz ibn Abdul
Rahman ibn Faisal Al Saud (Ibn Saud), its current leaders do not
display any skills, far-sightedness and political thinking. They are doing
everything possible in order that the earlier artificially created monarchy
could be divided into several parts. Evidently, due to feeble mind and old age,
the current Saudi King Salman ibn Abdulaziz Al Saud and his son Mohammad bin
Salman Al Saud, the youngest Minister of Defense in the world, have been involved
in three wars simultaneously or, as one may say, have begun a three-front war.

It is common
knowledge backed by history, for example if we look at the history of Europe,
that a state may succeed only if it leads one war and it will lose on two
fronts. In 1870-1871, Prussia (Germany) only crushed France and imposed on it
heavy war indemnity taking military actions on one front.

However, during
the World War I and World War II, Germany, which was already united by these
times, undertook military actions on two fronts and was heavily defeated in
both wars, with the impacts of those losses visible to this today.

We might be
absolutely astounded by the unreasonable behavior of the present Chancellor of
Germany, Angela Merkel – if we were unaware of the fact that the German
territory is still occupied by American troops and many American military bases
are located there.

But it seems that
Europe is too far from Saudi Arabia as the present Saudi leaders do not know
the rudiments of history. Not surprisingly, due to this very fact they have got
involved simultaneously in three complicated and cruel wars. The first war is,
of course, the Syrian conflict, which has occurred and is being continuously
fomented by the Saudis, who have spent hundreds millions of dollars on the
creation and generous financing of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State,
Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, etc.

Riyadh skyline

At first glance, it
may seem strange that these terrorist organisations just occasionally subject
the Saudi regime to mild criticism for derogation from the norms of “real
Islam”, but they do not go any far than that. For some reason, the terrorists
do not take any military actions against the Saudis, though the terrorists,
tempered in battle, need no more than three days to quickly cross the desert
regions near the Saudi-Iraqi border in their Toyota trucks and occupy the main
oil-bearing region of Al Hasa on the Persian Gulf shore.

However that does
not happen and the terrorists, for no reason whatsoever, do not leave the
Syrian and Iraqi territory and prefer to die as a result of effective bombing
by the Russian Military and Space Forces. Evidently, the Saudi leaders have
generously sponsored not only the terrorists’ military activities but their
death as well. But, given the low oil prices, the Saudi treasury will run empty
earlier or later, and what will the enraged terrorists do then?

The second Saudi
Arabia front comprises the unsuccessful military actions in Yemen where
barefoot Houthis rebels are not only putting up adequate resistance to the
Saudis and their satellites but also inflicting significant damage on them.
This being the case, when the rebels are armed with rifles alone. Since March
26, Saudi Arabia, supported by military air forces of Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait
and the United Arab Emirates, has been carrying out a military air operation
against the rebels using the most advanced arms supplied from the United
States.

The coalition was
also joined by Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan. According to UN data, 2,795
civilians died and 5,324 were wounded during escalation of the conflict. At
that, Riyadh is widely using the USA banned weapons – cluster bombs. This was
reported by the American organisation, Human Rights Watch, which insists on
conducting a most thorough international investigation of the fact.

Houthis fighting
in Yemen against the Saudi invaders

Experts are asking
quite a reasonable question: what will happen when Iran supplies modern weapons
to the rebels (as all the Saudi media are loudly sounding the alarm of these
prospects). It will happen, sooner or later. In these circumstances, Yemen will
easily regain the disputed territories that now form part of the Saudi
provinces Najran, Jizan and Ha’il. Therefore, all the southern part of the
modern Saudi Arabia will become the territory of Yemen, as was in the old
times, and that might serve as the catalyst for disintegration of the whole
kingdom.

The third front,
on which the Saudis are fighting without any success, is the ill-thought-of
tactics of decreasing oil prices. In this case, the Riyadh leaders blinded by
their wealth and seeking to take possession of the whole of the global market,
decided to oust the major oil-producing states like the USA, Russia, Iran,
Venezuela, Nigeria, Norway from the market. As the time goes on and the
competitors do not leave the oil market, the world is gradually becoming
accustomed to low prices.

But this has
struck a blow to the finances of Saudi Arabia, originally regarded as “the fat
cat”. Now its economy is beginning to experience certain difficulties caused by
the low prices, the enormous expenses of making war in Syria and Yemen and
expenses of supporting large social payments and subsidies.

There is a strain
on the balance of payments and spending of state funds. The things have gone so
far that there are rumours of privatization of the “sacred cow” –
Saudi Aramco, the major donor of the economy.

It would seem that
in these conditions, cutting external and non-core expenses (military
operations expenses, financing terrorist organisations) and focusing on the
economy would be a solution. However, the Saudi leaders, taking the bit between
their teeth, are seeking a solution in yet new adventures. Some media reported
that Saudi Arabia has taken the decision to start a land operation in Syria in
the nearest future without waiting for the support from the other allies, as
brigade General Akhmed al Asiri informed. This would be the case while the
Saudis haven’t even succeeded in Yemen.

It is possible
that Washington is deliberately drawing the Saudis into all kinds of adventures
in order that changes in the state structure in the Arab Peninsula will occur
sooner. There are up to $ 1 trillion worth of Saudi Arabia state funds stored in
American banks, plus about half trillion dollars of private deposits. If Saudi
Arabia falls apart it is almost impossible that any Saudi nationals will dare
to make financial claims against Washington.

The people who
will be heads of the new states will be undoubtedly grateful to the United
States and will need their assistance and supervision. For example, if the
representative of the Hashemite delegation, the now ruling King of Jordan
Abdallah II heads Hejaz, as his ancestors did for many centuries, and becomes
the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, he will evidently retain good feeling
towards Washington and its rulers.

Beyond any doubt,
the new adventures and ill-conceived external and domestic initiatives, where
the authorities resort to repressions and numerous executions in order to calm
down the people, only serve to draw the historical outcome and the “Arab
Spring” in the Arab Peninsula closer. It is possible that we will be witnesses
to the situation where the last son of the great ibn Saud, who in olden days
created Saudi Arabia, will become the last king of the desert monarchy in the
Arab Peninsula.

assange

At midday on Friday 5 February, 2016 Julian Assange, John Jones QC, Melinda Taylor, Jennifer Robinson and Baltasar Garzon will be speaking at a press conference at the Frontline Club on the decision made by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the Assange case.